ANSYS and Carnegie Mellon University partner to drive the next industrial revolution

Future Carnegie Mellon University engineers will design new innovative products more efficiently and effectively, thanks in part to a collaboration with ANSYS (NASDAQ: ANSS). The partnership brings together two world leaders in engineering, computer science and simulation technologies to impact the future of engineering education and research.

Manufacturing and product innovation is undergoing a revolution, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, similar to the digital revolution for virtual products. ANSYS and Carnegie Mellon want to boost engineers' use of simulation so as to enable unparalleled opportunities for exploration of many more materials and designs at the beginning of the development process. View the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGp-aPXyFTQ&feature=youtu.be

As part of the partnership, a new building on the university's campus will allow faculty, students, ANSYS researchers and other corporate partners to interact in a large computer-supported collaboration space. The building will also provide a spacious maker facility where students will have access to physics-based simulation tools and cutting-edge technologies for making, assembling and testing their designs. The shared goal is to build innovative approaches and tools that will result in shorter product development cycles and final products that are better quality and quicker to manufacture. All Carnegie Mellon students will also have access to the ANSYS solution portfolio, enabling them to explore, simulate and analyze solutions for real-world engineering challenges, either remotely on their laptops or within the collaboration space.

"We are grateful to ANSYS for the important educational opportunity this brings to students across our campus," said CMU President Subra Suresh. "Through a variety of CMU initiatives, we have seen firsthand that maker spaces help students think more creatively and take a hands-on approach to solving critical problems. Through this partnership, we can now enhance this vital skill set for graduate and undergraduate students alike, while providing new opportunities for researchers."

"By joining forces, ANSYS and Carnegie Mellon are investing in the future of engineering," said Jim Cashman, president and CEO of ANSYS. "We will enable students and industry collaborators to create unprecedented levels of exploration and innovation by equipping all engineering students with the advanced tools and expertise they need."

The partnership seeks a fundamental shift from the traditional "build and break" method where engineers build product prototypes and test them to identify design flaws. If employed at all, today's computational simulations typically come at the end of the traditional process to validate the design.

Simulation-driven product development flips the process by virtually exploring the properties of a plethora of design options up front, before committing to specific material and design choices. The benefit of physics-based computational tools is that they can test millions of permutations of designs, materials, flows and shapes to find the optimal design before the engineer needs to build a single physical prototype. Not only will this new approach unleash the next wave of innovative physical products, but it is a necessity to make designs more energy-efficient and sustainable.

Today, engineering simulation is the domain of highly specialized experts, and only a few companies use simulation end to end. The knowledge and use needs to become more commonplace among engineers. Carnegie Mellon and ANSYS are partnering to do exactly this—educate the next generation of engineers and enable them to build the products of tomorrow.

"We are grateful to ANSYS for providing a generous grant for a cornerstone building for our maker ecosystem, which will provide the space and simulation tools to expand our maker capabilities in the College of Engineering and the university," said James Garrett, dean of the College of Engineering. "This partnership is the beginning of a long-term initiative to elevate the skills of the future engineering workforce."

ANSYS' research expertise intersects broadly with Carnegie Mellon's, making it an ideal collaboration that will touch diverse fields such as autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing, biomedical devices, sustainability of physical products and connected products.

Provided by College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University